Born Today February 8: Robert W. Cummings

1865-1949

Robert W. Cummings, born on this day in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, was first and foremost a man of the stage. A highly respected and accomplished stage actor, he was a staple on Broadway for years.  His acting career started with stock & touring companies in the 1880's, before films were even invented.  He was known as a consummate supporting actor who was just as strong in comedic roles as he was in supporting characters in drama.  His debut in film came long after their invention; at the age of 49, he was pursuaded to appear in a film adaptation of a stage adaptation of an Upton Sinclair novel (I am pretty sure that he had appeared in stage production as well). The film was The Jungle, was released in May of 1914, and is now considered a lost film. Based on an Upton Sinclair novel of social injustice in Chicago, the film's lost status means that a number of roles are of an undetermined nature.  He would next show up in one of Edwin S. Porter's early efforts at Famous Players, an intrigue comedy based on a popular play of the times by Edward Peple:  The Spitfire (June 1914).  His first appearance in a film that today has historical significance was as Doyle in the Maurice Tourneur directed crime film Alias Jimmy Valentine, a Peerless Picture released in February of 1915. Though a man of the stage, Cummings had regular film work through 1919; over 25 of his nearly 35 film appearances came during this span of time.  He was basically a free agent, though he did have roles is two more lesser known Tourneur films (The Cub and The Ivory Snuff Box both in 1915). Also in 1915, he appeared in a couple of films with Clara Kimball Young--The Heart  of the Blue Ridge and Camille; and one of his first films in 1916, The Yellow Passport, also starred Young. Later in 1916, he added appearances in two films starring Francis X. Bushman:  The Wall Between and A Million a Minute, both directed by John W. Noble.  Later in the year, being a man of the stage, he was not going to turn down a chance to appear in some Shakespeare. He took the role of Friar Lawrence in Bushman's 1916 rendition of Romeo and Juliet with Beverly Bayne taking the role of Juliet. He then appeared with Lionel Barrymore in The Brand of Cowardice (October 1916), another Noble directed film; next appearing with Barrymore sister Ethel in The Awakening of Helena Ritchie, his last role of 1916.  He appeared in just four films in 1917, one of which was the Norma Talmadge melodrama The Law of Compensation (April 1917); and appeared in just three films the following year.  In ever diminishing returns, he acted in just two films in 1919 and just one in 1920 after which he quit film acting until the coming of sound. His last silent film role came in The Face at Your Window (October 1920). He appeared in just six more films in his film career, only two of which were in credited roles. His first appearance in a film with sound was actually a late partial silent: the mystery drama Convict's Code (August 1930) starring Cullen Landis and Eloise Taylor, in which he plays a governor.  In 1932, he appeared the independently produced It Happened in Paris, his first full sound film and his last credited role. His last four film appearances between 1935 and 1937 went uncredited, with his last film being The Outer Gate, a crime drama released in August of 1937.  Cummings died in Los Angeles twelve years later on the 22 of July at the age of 84.  There is currently no information on his interment. 

 

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Born Today December 5: Ben Carré

Life magazine photo of Carré at work sketching the begginings of a back drop paiting--I believe on the MGM backlot

1883-1978

Painter and film art director Benjamin S. Carré was born on this day in Paris, France.  Classically trained, Carré studied at the French Atelier Amable and became a professional scene painter for the Paris Opera and moved on to the Comédie-Francais.  In addition to scene painting, he was a prolific watercolor artist and painted all through the earliest days of his career, and exhibited the paintings throughout his lifetime.  Wanting to get into the film business he managed to find work at Pathé-Gaumont--he worked on several films while still in France, but his name has not survived in the credits to date (perhaps a catalog will turn up with these credits).  He came to the United States in 1912 looking for work in the studio system in the New York area.  He eventually landed at World Film (& Eclair) working on set painting at the Peerless Studio location.  The first film to bear his name for art work was the Clara Kimball Young drama Hearts In Exile in 1915, followed closely by the Albert Capellani film of Dumas' Camille.  Once he started working in the business, he had steady work and moved with the studios when they moved west.  Most of his career was film was spent during the silent era, though he did work on set into the sound era.  He also worked in various aspects of artistic production--costumes to camera work, but mostly he stuck to scene painting, for which he had a tremendous talent.  The last silent film that he worked on was the 1929 A. F. Erikson melodrama The Women From Hell staring Mary Astor and Dean Jagger (he had also worked on the Alan Dwan film The Iron Mask --a partial silent--in 1929).  He would be away from film for two years, showing back up as art director on the 1931 Charlie Chan film The Black Camel.  He would further take off time from film, staying away from film for a full 5 years.  He returned in 1936 to serve as art director for three more films, the last being the early film noir Great Guy starring James Cagney.  He then retired from the film business and concentrated on his individual paintings. Though he is not credited any later film work, he, according to The New York Times designed the Mount Rushmore backdrops in Hitchcock's North by Northwest, as well art work on Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.  As a member to the Hollywood community, he was also a founding member of the Motion Picture Academy of Art & Sciences.  Probably his most famous work was as the designer and painter of the catacombs for the set of the Lon Chaney horror of 1925: The Phantom of the Opera (though, officially, he went uncredited on the project). Carré and his wife Anne, herself a retired performer, stayed in the California for their official retirement. He passed away there on the 28th of May in Santa Monica. For such a high profile member of the earliest Hollywood film crowd, I can find no information as to his burial or cremation. Highly collectable and in demand, many of his paintings are still sold at auctions. He also penned a memoir of his time in the film business.  

 

 

 

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Born Today September 9: Paul Capellani

1877-1960

French born actor Paul Henri Capellani was born on this day in Paris.  He was the younger brother of Albert Capellani and the uncle of director Roger Capellani, Albert's son.  Interested in the dramatic arts (and art in general), Paul studied at a drama conservatory run by Charles Le Bargy from 1897 to 1901; he made his stage debut in 1902.  By 1904, he was acting in Shakespeare plays on the stage.  He made his film debut at Pathé in 1908 in Engulfed in Quicksands, a film directed by his brother.  Paul was also interested in sculpture and was quite the promising young artist in this regard as well.  Between 1908 and early 1915 he appeared in a large number of films under the Pathé umbrella, very many of them directed by his brother Albert.  He also dabbled in writing--mostly adaptations of existing literature into film scripts--however he had one original scenario produced in 1910 with Les caprices de Marion. In 1915, he followed his brother Albert to World Pictures in the U.S., and appears in Albert's film Camille (1915) starring opposite of Clara Kimball Young. Mostly following his brother's career Stateside, he increasingly became disillusioned with the cinema acting experience in the U.S., especially after his brother's--and hence his--contract was up at World Film.  He returned to France in 1919 to continue his stage career; though he also resumed his French cinematic career as well.  He continued to act sporadically in films from 1919 to 1922, when he reignited his interest in working in sculpture.  He was only in three more films after this point, two of them 1930's mono talking pictures.  The last film in which he appeared was La lettre (1930).  Paul Capellani remained an artist for the remainder of his life, after having moved to Cagnes-sur-mer France in 1930.  He died there on the 7th of November in 1960 at the age of 83.  I can find no information as to his burial.

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